1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a keypad, and in particular, to a keypad and a keypad assembly for a portable communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable communication terminals are evolving into complex multi-functional devices capable of providing various functions. Thus, a keypad of the portable communication terminal has to support characters and special characters in addition to numbers, and their size has to be fit accordingly due to the characteristic of a portable device.
A general qwerty-type keypad can be mounted in a portable communication terminal to input characters, but its large volume may become an issue due. These days, the keypad mounted in the portable communication terminal needs to provide a plurality of characters, numbers and special characters in a single key button.
A general keypad mounted in the portable terminal usually serves as a number input means for selecting a phone number. A character coining method in which characters, numbers, and special characters on a display device are selected with a single key may be used. In addition, the portable communication terminal may include a touch screen as an input means. However, in a touch screen type input device, a user cannot feel the activation of a key during operation.
If the user cannot feel the press of a key or cannot accurately press the desired key, the user may press adjacent another key, causing inaccurate manipulation of the keypad. Moreover, in a keypad supporting a plurality of characters with a single key, the user has to select the desired character from small-size characters printed in each key. As a result, a user who is not accustomed to use this type of keypad has to spend much time and effort in learning to manipulate the keypad accurately.